Our present interest in this chronology
is to call attention to the great number of people
who, in the
very nature of things, saw their Lord in the early
days of this earth's temporal existence. We do not
know how many there were, and we do not say how many
there were. But it is perfectly obvious there were “many,
exceeding great many.” (Alma 13:12.) We do
not know the population of the earth in the days
before
the flood. We do know that the childbearing years
of women continued to great ages and that sufficient
time
was involved for great populations to arise. If the
population of the earth had doubled every thirty-three
years, from the day of Adam to the appearing of the
Lord at Adam-ondi-Ahman, there would have been four
and a half billion people on earth. We do not suppose
for a moment that such was the case, but we cannot
escape the conclusion that many people were then
alive, and we do know that all the righteous among
them saw
the Lord.